The Deputy Secretary of State and Health announced today, World Health Day, before the Parliamentary Health Commission, the creation of a Medically Assisted Procreation Center in the Algarve, with the aim of improving “access to these treatments in this region and in the periphery".
António Lacerda Sales was responding to a question from the Alentejo deputy João Dias (PCP) about the possibility of expanding the public centers of PMA which, at the moment, only exist in Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon, Guimarães, Covilhã, Almada and in Funchal.
In a statement, the University Hospital Center of the Algarve (CHUA) announces that “it has been working with the Ministry of Health to ensure that the project is implemented by the end of 2021, intending to provide an effective response to the population of the Algarve and the Alentejo and integrate the referral network».
According to Ana Castro, Chairman of the Board of Directors, «the creation of this Center was already foreseen in our Strategic Plan».
At the moment, «we are working with the CHUA Gynecology and Obstetrics Services in the hospital units of Faro and Portimão, so that we can optimize the team and ensure that we have it ready to move forward with the project», he added.
At the same time, «we are evaluating the spaces to be able to place the equipment and we already have the plans of other centers that were created recently to use as a model. We asked for authorization to be able to move forward, because it lacks a referral network, and the Tutela agreed that we could move forward», he also said.
«The elements of the team that will integrate this Center are already identified by their profile of differentiation in the area», underlined Ana Castro, stressing the fact that, «with this answer, the Algarve will no longer be dependent on other Centers and will become an effective response for the southern population».
In the hearing of the Parliamentary Health Commission, requested by the PCP on the delays in access to PMA treatments and the measures to recover them, the secretary of state was also asked by deputies about the possibility of the Government reviewing the age limit for access to PMA techniques and on the lack of donations in public gamete banks.
Lacerda Sales recalled that a working group was created to assess the expansion of access programs to the PMA, which should present its conclusions in mid-May.
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